A Geek History of Time - Episode 200 - Masculinity in 1980s Fantasy Part II

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, This is a geek history of time. Where we connect Nurtury to the real world. My name is Ed Blalock. I'm a world history and English teacher here in northern California. And I just recently started reading the Harry Potter series to my son in the evenings. These are books that I've owned for a great many years, so we're not throwing any money at the turf. But, you know, they're stories that I think bear, you know, reading to my son. And there are lessons in them that I think are important. And what is interesting to me is now rereading them

in the light of knowing what we now know about JK Rowling. And further um, furthermore, having now spent how many years of we've been doing this podcast? Oh, Lordy. Yeah, like, or, or, yeah, having, having spent, because the last time I picked the books up was, you know, 10 years ago. And now having done this podcast for four years, um, there, there are so many points where I'm reading the text to my son and I'm thinking, oh my god, this is bullshit. Like, there are the universal fable kind of, you know, loyalty is important. I mean, all the themes that are important to teach kids that are great. But there's so much in the subtext of those books that now I'm like, dude, I could spend an entire season of the podcast,

just like, oh, hey, and by the way, here's how the Chamber of Secrets is a moderate liberal fucking fable, you know, because you have Draco Malfoy, who's literally an accelerationist you have Draco Malfoy who's literally an accelerationist, wizard supremacist, you know, he's literally talking about, oh, yeah, I wish they'd killed that Hermione Granger. Like, what the fuck? And it's portrayed as, well, you know, he's a jerk. Like, no, he's a little fucking Nazi. And like the adults in the school need to be cracking down on that shit. Like, dude, so yeah, that's, I have now gotten to the point where like in my head, I'm keeping a tally list of if I were to write fanfic of Harry Potter, this is all the shit I would fix. Like my stories are going to do this, this, this, this, and this, you know. So yeah, um, I guess, I guess, um,

knowing, knowing J.K. Rowling's true colors and spending the last four years doing this kind of analysis of literally everything we've ever watched has has made it hard to just read the books to my son. So yeah, that's that's what I have going on. How about you? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin and US history teacher up here in northern California. And just I want to apologize to you in some ways that we've ruined all the things ever. Because as soon as you said, oh yeah, I'm reading them to my son. I'm like, because you want him to know

about the blitz this early. Like, which, because that's where my bang goes is like, oh, this is clearly a woman whose grandparents lived through the blitz and therefore her writing is such an issue. Yeah. And then in addition, all the other, you know, shit, like the very ill informed Nazi references as told by the granddaughter of someone who probably fought against the Nazis. Yeah. You know, just like, yeah. So again, yeah, I'm looking at it

from that lens. Like I cannot, I cannot imagine not looking at it through these lenses now. Yeah. You know, my daughter, so I've got two things. One, I was informing some folks who were coming over for a small gathering. Number one, please, please check your status. Yes.

And just so you know, my kids, their status is clear. They're both negative, but they do have a sniffle. So they're going to be masked up. And if you want to come, despite having symptoms of just regular illness, not COVID, then please wear a mask. But if you don't want to be there because my kids will do there and be masked,

then you don't have to, and on and on. And it's kind of given all the, if thens. And I told my daughter, I was like, well, so, you know, this is what we're doing and this is how we're doing it. I said, I still want you there. You know, I'm not going to send you up to your room or anything, but this is what I need to do so that they can make a choice that is informed, dignified consent. And she says, wow, you, you really thought of all of that for, for everyone? I said, yeah, I do that all the time.

And she just looks at me. She's like, that sounds exhausting. And I was like, yeah, it is. But that is, that is so you. Yes. And so very your daughter. Yes. Like, well, and she saw the value of it too.

Yeah. But so my, my update is that I decided that I need to clean out my pantry. I don't know why I decided I needed to do that, but I'm glad that I did. I filled an entire garbage bag with expired things. I don't mean like, oh, it just expired last month. I mean stuff that like had a 2020 date on it. That's three years later than some of the things. Oh, um, Jit Ali. Yeah, I forgot how long he'd been in that house.

Uh huh. Oh my God. Yeah. So like things that I had clearly purchased when I was married. Uh, so, you know, cause there's some things that's got like a six year date because it's a powder, right? Yeah.

But eventually, you know, that that will also so and it was also a turns out I have bought curry four times. I have no idea what that's like. Um, yeah, at all. Yeah. And I, and I hope I never do it again. We'll see. I have the excuse of my kids love to cook Okay, and so they'll give me a recipe list and if I'm not thinking about like oh, let me cross check against what we've got Oh, and then I got to the point where I was opening the pantry and it just was overwhelming And so I showed my kids today. I'm like, okay, so now these are alphabetized and there's this and my daughter was just like Thank you so much for doing this. I hated like asking you five times, dad, can you reach this? Dad can you reach this?

And I was like, yeah, no problem. And by the way, the 18 kinds of flour we have because your brother makes all these damn weird cookies, they're all on the back over there. So. Yeah. Well, I will confess that in our in our pantry, which is just a set of shelves in our garage. But but our I should be so lucky. Mine's just a cabinet, actually, it's not a walk in. So yeah, okay, yeah, ours ours is a significant portion of the space

in our garage, which by the way, we're never going to put a car in. Okay. Wow. That's just never, never gonna happen. I never, never gonna get in a car in my garage. Yeah. No. That's, yeah. So anyway, yeah. No, I, I, I understand that struggle. And if, if I weren't frankly kind of afraid

of the prospect of doing it, I'd be listening to you saying that and going, you know, we probably ought to do that with ours. Yeah, but I'm still in that, in that terrified head space. And I really don't want to deal with that. I get it. I tried to do it yesterday and I decided, you know, this nap that I found is so much more compelling.

And so I did know that feeling. Yeah. And I even got a message from my partner and she said, hey, how the pantry clean go? And I was like, I had a really good nap. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah.

It didn't. The answer is it did not. It did not. It didn't. It didn't go. It didn't go. No. And here's the funny thing. Funny you say that. I use that on a show recently. But the pantry took maybe 45 minutes total.

And it could be because I spent so much time as a temp that cleaning things out is actually pretty easy for me. Okay. I can do it. Yeah, get my school supplies. Yeah, but but yeah, yeah, I don't know Yeah, but it well it's it's always it's it's one of those kinds of tasks that's on that list of you spend a week Stressing out about it and not wanting to do it and then you do it and you're like well Shit if I just got to it it wouldn And then you do it and you're like, well, shit, if I just got into it, it wouldn't have taken.

Oh, yeah. I spent a month promising myself that I would do it each weekend. That's what I did. Yeah. Okay, I do want to share this one last thing. Okay, yeah. Because producer George and friend of the show,

Dr. Gabriel Cruz will find this hilarious. You will too. Found a new game, free to play, which you're going to need to download, which if you haven't already, you might have. But we're playing it's a Call of Duty modern warfare too. Oh, yeah, no, download it. Okay. Let's go. Yeah. So got in there. And it's the exact same controls as all the other first person shooters that we play and an audience. I think for a living, I think for fun, I think for fun again, that kind of makes money sometimes. I think for fun for this show. When I play a game,

I don't want to think. So I don't. So it's first person shooters and I just, you know, like to chat with your house. So we're playing. It's a good time. We have a lot of fun. Producer George and I are playing Modern Warfare 2. And I don't know how, but because the controls are exactly the same. And I am stone cold moronic in this new map. I don't know how to do things. I'm staring at the sky. It's the same controls. And I'm doing it like I'm using my nose.

And it is okay. So, so the question occurs to me, is there a difference in like the control mechanisms can all be totally the same? There's no difference in all things. And all things being equal. Yeah, it's just that environment. It is just the environment. The environment and like it's so like one of the first things you're supposed to do is Ping something on the map and go to it. So the essential set a goal any goal and accomplish it Okay, it took me four games to figure out how to do it

Like I'm just an idiot and so so then like I'm going around and just be an idiot the whole way and not on purpose. And I'm talking about how incompetent I feel and how like, oh my god, I can't believe it. And on and on. And producer George just laughing his head off at me, right? Of course.

Yeah. And because I'm dragging us both down, because my my my idiocy knows no bounds. Okay, even even on your best day producer George is the one who winds up with a sore lower back because he's carrying E and me almost definitely all the time. So so yeah, I'm actually really a hindrance here. I really am. Like I'm just, okay, so it is a thankless job for producer George. And so I'm doing that. And then in between missions, there is a chat that pops up.

And he and I have just been talking to each other, but a chat pops up and it says, you know we can hear you, right? I was like, that's not from you. Is it George? No. Can other people hear us? Yes, we can hear you. And then it says, you're in the, uh, the map chat, not your party chat. To which I start to realize that this, you've been monologuing the entire time. And these people I'm sure that everybody everybody's been hearing how stupid I am and probably seeing evidence of my stupidity the whole time. And just I they've got to be talking to

each other at this point going like, did he seriously die within two minutes of being on this map? Like all he was supposed to do was open a door. Like, how did he, how did he die? He has a parachute. Like he drowned. How did he drown? Like, it's a swimming pool. Like it just so much.

And so I just, I said to them, you know, a couple of times, I'm like, well, okay, we're going to go into party chat. Everybody, you're very welcome. I hope that you've enjoyed. So anyway. So, so I'm just picturing somebody else's party chat to two guys just saying he knows he has to know we can hear him right somebody's got to tell him don't you dare right and then something along lines of like you know they're probably betting and like like no no nobody's that stupid this is performance art so anyway we've indulged my ADS-C enough. You're taking the helm on this one.

I guess I have continuing your good work. Picking it up, yeah, picking it where we left off. Yeah. So short form, this is 70 sucked, right? Did that everybody thank you? Yeah, we're done. I mean, it's a point we've come back to it should be one of the so many times one of the one of the rules Yeah of the show is you know rule number four of the seventies just sucked. Yeah any any episode that starts based in the seventies

Has to acknowledge that the seventies just sucked. Yeah, so We had been talking about the decline in American prestige and specifically wave feminism, the Androgyny coming up in popular culture, and the visibility, and I'm not going to say acceptance, but the increasing visibility of public awareness of LGBTQ identities. Yes. And the fact that those people existed. Yeah, there's a wink and a nod culture going on at that point, right? Like there's everybody knows now that biker bars and leather bars are places where you can have a homosexual encounter.

Yeah. For men, you know, everybody, and there's certain tropey type things, everybody's starting to make the joke about bowling leagues for women. Yeah. And then softball leagues actually in the summer. Yeah. Like, it really was a seasonal kind of thing.

Yeah, women's, women's, yeah. Yeah. Hold on a second. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay. I'm in this, wind, yeah. Hold on, sorry. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yep. OK, sorry. I had a couple of warnings pop up.

Anyway, about connectivity to my devices. Anyway, so androgyny and popular culture, you know, second wave feminism, all of a sudden women are waking up and going, you know, aside from the fact that we can vote now, there's still a lot of shit going on that's just kind of not fair. And we'd really like to talk about that. And mask, are you going to cover the sexual revolution in talking about this or is this

a good place to stop down for a second and discuss that? We can totally do that. Okay. I think that's a great idea. There was a study done in, it was 1950. It was a British study in 1950. I remember because the numbers matched up and I was like, what the hell? And they asked women how important is sex in a marriage. Okay, so it's a long-term

study. This is one of the questions that they asked. And literally 50% of women said, yes, it's important, which means half of all married women, because they asked married women this. Half of all married women said it was not that important in 1950. Now this is English women, British women, 1950. So consider everything that's going on in Britain. Lie back in the sink of England. Right. Lie back in the queen. King and country. So it's, you know, it's 1950. There's a lot of trauma. There's a lot of PTSD. There's a lot of like, there's a lot fewer men, you know, there's a lot going on here.

Okay, so there's a ton of back. Yeah, yeah. But the fact is half of women don't think that sex is that important in a marriage. Yeah. Okay, cool. 1976, same survey. Yeah.

76% of women think that sex is important in a marriage. Okay, wait. The numbers matched up. That was the weird part. Yes. I mean, I the the increase doesn't surprise me, but the precision. Yeah, no, and that's why it stuck out of my hands. I was kind of like, what the fuck? Yeah, okay, it's weird that it's kind of like also in the 1950s, the families that had three children in America tripled and the families that had three children in America tripled. And the families that had four children in America quadrupled. Yeah, it's just kind of remember that one.

Yeah, work a math. Um, but okay. So from 50 to 76, many of the women asked are the same women. Okay. Six years later, think about that, right? Their husbands haven't suddenly gotten good at dicking, right? It's not, it's not that it's not that there's been an increase within those marriages. It's not that they raise their daughters to want sex with their husbands more or to expect more.

That's not what's going on. What's going on is there was a sexual revolution came about partly due to the pill because you could finally have fun with sex instead of like have it in the back of your head at all times that this could end up in a child. Yeah. But women and culture started valuing women's sex differently and more positively instead of as a duty. Um, it became an integral part of a marriage. It became an important part of the marriage. And that is an empowering type of thing. Very much so.

Yes. Um, and it is an important kind of thing because now it's valuing their own joy and their own pleasure. And I think that when you talk about second wave feminism, and ultimately third wave as well, because then yeah, second wave feminism still like talks in terms of lavender men as type shit. Um, the stomach step. Um, yes.

But third wave feminism like is actually like, okay, and now we're going to include everybody that's not middle-aged white women. Middle class. Yeah. Oh, sorry, middle class. I said middle-aged. Well, you know, both. But, yeah, third wave is much, much, a different, a different cat.

No. The idea of intersectionality. Yes. And as a big part of third wave, making space and getting the fuck out of the way, you know, having said that, this, this focus on sex being important, this focus on a woman's pleasure, um, coalescing with and roginy and, and things like that. And coalescing with an awareness of other sexualities other than what at that time was considered the default setting. It's a

real interesting convergence there. Well, it really is. And you know, what's what pops into my head as you as you mentioned that. And I think ties in with this whole idea of traditional ideas and masculinity. There's a theology scholar on TikTok. And I want to say his last name is MacKalaklan. And he... I know who you're talking about. Yeah. Let's see.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do this. Um, and he, he, all right, let's see it. That's what he said. Yeah. All right. Let's see it. Uh, and then he, and then he just completely very, very dryly, but, you know, it's engaging his, his affect. Yeah, he's just like, no, that's totally wrong. But one of the points that I found fascinating was he commented on sexuality in the context of the people who were writing the Bible and that it was not about male and female, so much as it was about dominant and submissive or penetrative versus receiving or passive. And that hierarchical, it was fundamentally hierarchical.

And I think that's a really profound insight that has something to do with as much as, you know, we like to think that by the 1950s, 1960s, it was more about men and women and whatever. There was still, and for some sections of the population, some sub-cultures within our mega-culture. It still is very much a hierarchical, there is a superior and an inferior, right, you know, a partner. And the idea that women who as the wife in the house and with all of the other things tied to feminine gender roles for centuries

would suddenly be asserting themselves and saying, hey, you know what, I'd really like to have an orgasm once in a while. Right. How about we work on this and turn this into a partnership thing for anybody who for for sis had white men of a certain mindset, there's a really deep level on which that could be really that was deeply threatening. Because all of a sudden, well, wait a minute, I mean, I've got to I've got to put in effort now. Like, wait, the whole effort can't just go toward me.

Yeah. Yeah, it's not nearly a transaction. I take care of you. This is you taking care of me. It's not just transactional sex. Yeah. Because it's not hierarchical. It's like you said.

Yeah. And and you know, so that, you know, all of that leads to the way in which that was so threatening for, you know, all of that leads to the way in which that was so threatening for, you know, all of the, all of the commentators and you mentioned what's her name. I've completely I've completely blanked on her name right now, but the country singer. Oh, no, no, the she wound up she she lost her endorsement from the orange juice people. Because of her comments of Anita Bryant. Yes, thank you. You know, for the Anita Bryant crowd,

you know, forget about LGBTQ identities. This idea of, you know, men being told, well, you know, what have you done for me lately? Yeah. Or is a more. I would say more to the point, what you have done is not enough anymore. And therein lies the entitlement of the system that the men were raised under.

If I provide a home and hearth, I get all these things. Yeah. They're mine by right. You know, and yeah, that's so yes, yes. And you've got Philish Laffley as well in that mix. You know, her name kept coming up in my head, but I was like, am I remembering her right? Yes. Well, yeah, she's good to know. Yeah. But and that's, you know, mostly the American end of things. There's certainly other people cross-span. You know, in 1970, also, our bodies, ourselves, came out, which is absolutely. Yeah. And that, I think it published out of Earth's shattering. It was published out of Boston, I recall and it was think you're women's health specifically women's sexual health like it's an

entire book dedicated to that you know yeah so yes all of these things and you've got a need of Ryan in the late 70s yeah all of a sudden all of a sudden feeling like she's got a stick up for men mm-hmm because I'm sorry they've been on the top of the heap for like, fucking, ever. And the whole point, the whole point that everybody was trying to make is, hey, look, you've been on the top of the heap. Can we maybe level the heap out a little bit?

Well, not only that, but I would, I would also say that like by making it that transactional, by making it that entitled, you've also trapped men into being producers. And they can't enjoy things just for the sheer joy of them either. And they can't let up. You have to keep producing. You want sex. You have to keep bringing home the bacon.

You want, you know, to be able to go out and smoke and drink with the boys, you have to make sure that we make the rent. You, you, you want any joy, you must produce for it. And then you are entitled to this joy. And it's just this whole, well, yeah, no, it's gross. I mean, from a, from a, from a modern progressive standpoint, it's grotesque. Yeah. You know, it's like the, the, the tag group on Facebook, the streets are not okay.

Yeah. Like the tag group on Facebook, the straights are not okay. Yeah. Like there's, there's some unhealthy shit going on there. Yeah, but they've been so enmeshed in this belief of the man half of this is what a man does. This is what a man gets by his right. These things, therefore, uh, and, and the second you start saying, whoa, let's, let's take a look at these rules a second. It's like, I've put all of my level up points into this, into this area of the stat. And you're now telling me that this stat is not the thing that will win D and D for me.

Yeah. This is, yeah, I can't just max out strength and like do everything. Right. Now now you're telling me I need dexterity to write, like imagine, imagine if they're like literally 1970s, literally fantasy games. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like, a minute. Yeah. Like, there's a reason all this stuff is turning up in the shitty time of seven. I mean hell we just

We we a little while back. We talked about punk music same thing. Yeah, it gets started in the 70s like most of the things that we have talked about I think That have a darkness to them or have a rebellion to them tend to come out of the same period of time where it is obvious Yeah, that the rules are fucked up and they need to change. And different people's reactions lead to different things. So, a Wisconsinite from Ohio develops a fantasy world in which you can buy sex. And there's charts for it. Hey, Jackson, it's goddamn charts. I tell you what, you know, you've got fantasy role playing. You've got, you know, and you also have porn chic coming out at the same time. That's true.

You know, you have Maryland Chambers. You have, oh god, what's going to say Lucy Lawson, but that's not a name. The deep throat. I mean, you've got, I'll remember. Yeah, I'm blanking on it too. But you've got these kinds of things that are coming into the zeitgeist. Linda Lovelace.

Thank you. I'm ashamed myself remembering that. But yes, it's actually an important part of time. But you've got those things going on. And I think it does kind of tie back to this idea of masculinity as a transactional model and a productive model. And people's reaction to the fact that it is no longer enough. How did I not earn her? Yeah. how did I not earn this? I played by all the rules. So Okay, and I'm sorry I hijacked everything. No, no, no, no, no, it's no because it's a brilliant

fucking set of points. No, it's awesome. But what occurs to me right now, as we're as we're having this conversation is that right now, very recently, we've had the downfall but the downfall work. We've had a very prominent, I don't want to say men's rights activist, but a very prominent online misogynist, you know, who very much was trying to re-ignite that set of sexist ideas about women owing men sex. We have the whole in-cell movement where there's this whole generation of young men, you know, and like the extreme ends of that subculture, you know, calling for legislation to require women to give themselves up. Right. To men, you know, to utterly eliminate women's sexual agency because they are

uneducated and they are responding to It's the it's the you know 50 years later backlash to this to the same idea and and like Everything old is new again You know, Oh yeah. Um and yeah. So no, it's it's it's important. I genuinely think that somewhere in before going to college, I think possibly as part of sexual. In schools, I think we ought to be teaching the history of the sexual liberation movement and getting into the concepts behind the sexual revolution. Partly because I'm a social studies teacher and I want to try to, you know, get our reach into everything as much as possible to make sure that we're completely irreplaceable. But also because, you know, ideologically, and I, as an idealist, you know, I think we

need to be inoculating young people, especially young men, against these horrible, awful, toxic ideas, because it's hurting them as much as it's hurting the young women around them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It might not be physically as endangering. Yeah, no, it is entirely not physically as a date. And I know that's not clear.

Yeah, well, it's not what I was trying to say. It was clear to me that you were saying, but like, yes, creating a society wherein men think that their only value comes again, from their earning capability, whether it's earning money or prestige or sex, all of that is ultimately, it's like using an eraser on the back of the pencil. You are wearing that person down to enough.

I did some looking during our little break behind the scenes here, folks. There was a big of a break because I remembered in the first D&D, I couldn't, I don't have any of the original stuff. Okay. In the very first D&D, there was a Harlet table. I don't know if you remember this, but a Harlett, and I'll just read it to you as Guy Gaxe wrote it. Yeah, I think I remember it might not remember the same thing, but I remember something similar. Go ahead. It's random encounters, essentially, and it cuts off from the thing

above it. But Harlett encounters can be with brazen strumpets or haughty courtesans, thus making it difficult for the party to distinguish each encounter for what it is, parentheses. In fact, the encounter could be with a dancer or a dancer only prostituting herself as it pleases her, an elderly madam, or even a pimp and parentheses.

In addition to offering the usual fare, the harlot is 30% likely to know the valuable information, 15% likely to make something up in order to gain a reward, and 20% likely to be or work with a thief. You may find it useful to use the subtable below to see what sort of harlot encounter takes place. So, this is on Percental Dice. Yes.

1-10 Slavonly Troll, TRUL. 11-25 Brazen Strumpet. 26-35 Cheap Trollup. 36-50 Typical Street Walker. 51-65 Saucy Tart. 66-75 wanton wench 76 to 85 expensive doxy DOxy Doxy is historical term. Oh, okay. I did not know that term. Yes. Oh, hey, the Victorians had

Oh tons wide Vocabulary for the description of of that trade. 86 to 90, Haughty Cortison 91 to 92, aged Madam 93 to 94, wealthy, procurus 95 to 98, sly pimpe 99 to 100 rich pandera. The rest of this goes on. An expensive doxy will resemble a gentle woman, a haughty cortisone, a noble woman, and the other highlights might be mistaken for good wives and so forth. Then it moves on to illusionist because h i illusionist encounters will be with an illusionist of seventh to tenth level d four plus six with zero to three apprentice illusions and dead. And so it's just fucking normal.

No, he, oh, it's utterly normalized. And by the way, yeah, by the way, on the next, like, I can only kind of see the next column. So press gang, rake, ruck, shasa, ranger, ruffian, shadow. Yeah, Harlett is amongst these net, these encounters. Yeah, it's, it's, it Yeah, it's effectively a monster encounter, right? Because in AD&D, everything effectively was. So that table was in the first edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. That's what it was, yes.

It disappeared after that. Well, yeah, once you got to second edition, everybody went That's what it was. Yes. And it disappeared after that. Well, yeah, once you got to second edition, everybody went, yeah, there's no. No, no. This is, this is, we're just, no, there's no reason for this to be here. We don't need any of this. Right.

Um, but I have, in fact, a story from my miss spent youth related to that table. So point out that you and I are both public school teachers. Yeah. Okay. I was when I was 14. No, no, it was probably when I was 12. My friends and I were playing and I had gotten roped into acting as the game master. And it was a Saturday afternoon and I basically just said, you know what, I'm just going

to throw random encounters at these guys because I don't, you know, I don't want to have to spend too much time thinking about it. And I wound up using, because they were in a city. So I wound up using the random encounter table, which all of that stuff is off of. Sure. And I got the Harlett result. And then I rolled on the subtable

and I said to them, well, as you're, and I don't remember exactly which category it was. Mm-hmm. you're and I don't remember exactly which category it was. But I said to them, you encounter a group of women like it was like three, I think it was like three in my head somehow. I pictured three women. And you know, I used one of the terms off of the table. I don't remember which of them it was. And one of my buddies who did not have the same level of vocabulary as the rest of us at the table said, What does that mean? And before I could respond from the kitchen, I hear my mother ask, yes, Ed, what does that mean? So that encounter ended very quickly.

And right now talking to you about this, I kind of want to send my mother a text message and you go, by the way, you probably have no memory of this at all, but I want to thank you for not allowing this to be normalized in my head when I was 12 because Holy cow. Oh yeah. So yeah, so yes, we are public school teachers, but I was 12. And

okay. And you know, so and yes, it ended in a very, very yeah. Yeah. Like this could all be on TV kind of way. Yeah. So so yes, in the 70s, in a fantasy game, that was a thing. As I think very much a reaction, because you're still in a transactional relationship with this harlot because she's 30% likely to do this 20% likely to do that 10% likely to do this. It is a transactional relationship still. And so the people who are rubber banding and reacting to this and are they're reacting to the fact that the rules have shifted out from under them and they were they thought they were doing so well to finally earn that whatever. Yeah, yeah, and you know, I think it's interesting.

The it strikes me how incredibly reductive it gets which I mean anytime you're doing anything with with Dyson, Treni's random random number generation. It is reductive. But the very fact that that particular encounter would be broken down that much into a, okay, and you just roll the dice, and this is how you're gonna do it, in GuyGax's head, says an awful lot about Gary.

Yes. And his, and his whole worldview. And it's not flattering. And well, yeah. And the group of people who sat around his table. Yes. But yeah, I, wow. So, so yeah, there's, there's this ground swell of change in all of these ways that is leaving CISET white dudes feeling very, very threatened, whether they should have felt threatened or not, they're feeling that way. And then at the same time, that is all happening on that level as a nation. The United States is going through massive geopolitical decline. So Vietnam, the Vietnam War cost over $120 billion in eight years.

Yeah. Between 1965 and 1973. It cost $120 billion and that is in 65 to 73 money. In 2022 dollars, that's a trillion dollars in eight years. And that's just the eight years of combat. If you go back further. Further, it was even forward further. It's about 500 billion from 46 to 75. Yeah. 500 billion. Yeah. Out of the GDB and that 120 billion dollars. That's a trillion dollars that $120 billion, that's a trillion dollars in modern money.

In 1974, the GDP was 9.25 trillion in modern money. 2021 GDP for the US is 23 trillion for comparison. Starting at about 1968, that spending and the tax increases that paid for it, because, you know, that was back at a time when if you're going to fight a war, you're going to raise taxes to pay for it instead of to kick in. Yeah. Yeah. That is in economic histories of the 1970s, the Vietnam War is pointed to by scholarly sources as a cause of inflation. Yep.

Because a ninth of the GDP, you know, was going to that. And I know I'm fudging numbers that way, but you get what I'm saying. There was this huge amount of money going into this one direction. Yeah. And so the taxation that had to go with that and all of that is leading to inflation. And I'm going to put a pin in that for a second. We're going to come back to it. Now beyond the cost of the war in dollars, the whole military action was awful.

It was grinding. It was ugly. It was divisive. And it heavily influenced the politics and outlook of the baby boomers. And we've talked about this on prior episodes. They were against the war because they didn't want to have to go fight in it. And if they leaned left, they didn't see why we should be fighting people just because they were

communists. And across the board, a majority of baby boomers were strongly anti-work as they didn't want to have to go do it, right? In 1965, public support of the war according to Gallup stood at 64% in favor. Over four years by 1969, it dropped to 39%. Now, is that age indexed or is that total? That's that's or is that only amongst the the baby boomers?

That's overall. Okay. That is the population as a whole. Okay. That is not that is not population index. That is everybody. All together, all age categories, all cadres. And in 1970, a majority of Americans wanted troops withdrawn for again, this is still according to Gallup, a majority of Americans in 1970 wanted troops withdrawn from Vietnam by 1971. Wanted troops withdrawn from Vietnam by 1971. Mm-hmm So this is 20 years after the height, if you want to call it that of the Korean conflict, right? Right, right, right and

this is 30 years after Pearl Harbor. Yeah 30 years after Pearl Harbor. Yeah. And World War II, we had gone out and we had been the arsenal of democracy and our soldiers had gone out and they had done what they had to do and they'd done their duty for their country. And, you know, they'd come home and there was this outlook on what they had done. Mm-hmm. Within dominant culture, World War II was viewed as a good war. And the men who fought in it were, it was a broad cross section of the population. If you were of a certain age, you had served, and there was a fairly high likelihood you had served in combat in one way or another, right?

Well, now You have a generation who was getting drafted and sent off and There wasn't really a direct Explanation as to why we had to fight this well, we got to make sure that the communists don't don't get control. We've got to maintain, you know, we got to contain communism because of the domino theory and we got to do all this stuff. And there wasn't the same visceral level of this is ugly, but it's what we need to do. Right. this is ugly, but it's what we need to do.

Right. Within within the zitgeist. Yeah. And furthermore, there was a very clear level of power disparity that hadn't been there in World War II. And to a certain extent, hadn't even been there in Korea. Yeah, it was the you hear the call you go. Yeah. Yeah.

And now because of television, because of the particular way that the media operated in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Now in their living rooms every evening as part of the five o'clock news, people were seeing fresh faced American boys going out and patrolling through villages full of unarmed people. Like even if it wasn't pictures of children being napalmed or, you know, a South Vietnamese police, you know, street executing NVA, you know, agents. Right.

Even if it wasn't anything that brutal, the images that were coming home were of American soldiers, boys, young men, average age in world war in world war two, something like 25 average age in Vietnam was 16. Yeah. There's the 16 song. And yeah, the reason I know it so well is because George producer George and I met when I was 19 and he was 26. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, so you know, there's there's a difference in in who the soldiers are that you're seeing in the images coming back. There's a difference in the immediacy of the images. And there's a very important difference in what it is that those soldiers are doing when you see them. Yeah. The context is very different. Well, and there's also there, there is a high or a much more visible

number of people who dodged the draft. Yes. You know, it wasn't just, oh, that's those people and those people is code for black people. Or, you know, it's, you know, first off, you had Muhammad Ali straight up saying, at the age, I think of 25 saying, hang going, no, I'll go to jail. Conscious objectors have always existed,

but he has a high profile and he does it. Andegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate.

Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate.

Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. Collegiate. talked about it too of like, you know, he drew the line at killing them. He was fine beating them up. And the army said, well, if you're not going to kill them, we won't let you beat them up. Yeah. So there you go. But, but I mean, so he's a, yeah, you're absolutely right. He's a, he's also a black athlete and Olympic champion and an outspoken advocate for black

rights. Yeah. And so you, you, so you had that profile. And so it was still kind of easy on some levels for some people to say, well, what do you expect? These, these people, those people and mean black people are shirking their responsibilities. Even though they were four times as likely to go over and being drafted. But like it used to be prior to that war that draft dodging was something that the blacks did. You know, like that's there's like, you know, and I'm, I hope you heard the air quotes around. Yeah. I'll be saying with the. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, but so you had that. But now, but now like in the early 1970s,

you have a high degree of visibility of people fleeing the country, burning their cards and straight up just avoiding the draft. I think it was 75 or 76, and I know I'm jumping a little bit ahead, but all in the family had that Christmas episode with the guy who I swear was Harold Ramos, but I know I'm wrong because it wasn't Harold Ramos. But he was draft Dodger and Archie tried to ruin Christmas.

And one of Archie's friends, I think his name is, nick name was Pinkie, which is weird, but he was a gold star family. And so he had lost his son and Vietnam. And Archie's like, well, what do you think of that? And Pinkie's like, I think my son would support you doing that. And if he was here right now, he would tell you that. And so I'm gonna sit down and eat with you.

And it was just, you know, all the family like, it deserves a really close look. Sometimes it hit really good home runs. And that was one. But like this idea of draft dodging is being an option at all. Instead of just a thing that that's just something that happens off screen. It's it that is a big, it like so now so now, you know, masculinity, again, being challenged. Yeah.

You know, because how can you be a man if you're running, you know, but at the same time, well at the same time, like, Muhammad Ali, the manliest of men is like, fuck that. I don't wanna do it. I'm not doing that. Yeah. I'm not gonna go 13,000 miles away

and kill people who've never done anything to me when you won't stand for my own rights. So I can't remember exactly how he said it, but I got no problem with the Peter. You're my oppressor when I, he's so quick and so glib and he's such, there's no way I'm going to do it just, but essentially, you're my oppressor when I say I want rights. You're my oppressor when I say I want equality. And now you want me to go over there and kill somebody who's never had a problem with me and oppress them from across the world. No.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So, oh yeah. No, I mean, that's all part of it. And what I was just saying a second ago was, was the visual context in which people were seeing the war. You know, I specifically said, even when they're not doing anything, we're seeing this power dynamic of American soldiers walking through

villages full of armed people who clearly are afraid of them and don't want them there. And that's on those occasions when we're not seeing fresh faced 19 and 20 year old American boys setting fire to villages, full of those same unarmed people. Right. You know, and the very nature of the asymmetric warfare symmetric warfare that the US got sucked into. In that war meant that the images that were going out were all were primarily the preponderance of them made 19-year-old American boys look like bullies. Yeah. And so there needed to be a recasting of masculinity for that. And so the hyper violent Charles Branson movies, dirty Harry movies, dirty Harry, all of that, which are both like white rage in an urban setting. And one of them is a cop who will go extra legal

to do the right thing, which is tremendous violence toward people of color. Ultraviolence. Yeah, the ultraviolence. And I mean, taxi driver is a really good example. Yeah. He goes on a killing spree in a house of prostitution because, and he's not mentally well,

but we still sympathize with him somehow. Yeah. And it's exceedingly violent. And so that ultraviolence becomes normalized. Normalized as masculinity, though. Yeah. And in many ways, that is to kind of help us And I've very many ways that is to kind of help us find more palatable the bully behavior that we are doing to the world. Okay. It makes us more willing to accept it. Like, well, this is what men do. Okay.

Yeah, I can see that. And that's not an angle I had twigged on, but I can see that. So in 1973, the Paris Peace Accords led to the end of US military involvement in Vietnam. Okay. We agreed, this struck me. I had not realized that these were, I'd forgotten the terms. We agreed to withdraw all of our troops within 60 days.

I know. It was two months. Yeah. So, you know, and, and, and, you know, within very recent memory, everybody was like, oh my God, the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Like, this is history repeating itself. Hi. How are you?

History teacher here. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Because now you all listen to me either time. Nobody has none of you paid attention in history class when you were in high school. So of course it's happening again. And so the two, the two halves of Vietnam were supposed to find a peaceful mechanism of reunification that was part of the terms of the agreement, but it was pretty clear to everybody analyzing it at the time that the South was weaker and more vulnerable and this was not going to end well, right? And and we were just we were pulling up stakes and getting the fuck out because there there was not a popular support at home for the war anymore. It was too expensive. And the North Vietnamese

had done a remarkably good job of bleeding us white. And they won in an asymmetric warfare situation. My favorite quote of that, there's two two one, Ho Chi Minh in 1971 said, you know, we've been at this for almost a thousand years. First, it was the Chinese, then it was the French, then it was the Japanese, then the French for some reason came back and now it's you Americans. If it takes a million a year to do it, we will will sacrifice a million a year. If it takes a million a year to do it, we will. We'll sacrifice a million a year. I'm very much Damien phrasing and pulling together several quotes. But the one, the one quote that I really liked was at the TED Offensive, the captured a, a Vietcong operative.

Yeah. And he asked him, who's winning this war? And he says, you guys are, he says, you Americans are. And they say, who's going to win the war? He says, we will. And they say, well, how can you say that if you just said that we're winning? He says, how does that square? Right. And he says, because you're gonna leave. Yep. It's like, hey. That's it.

I don't know what to say to that. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's done. And that was in 68. So, yeah. God damn it. But, that done. And that was in 68. So, yeah, God damn it. Oh, but yes, yes, they absolutely let us white. In the same way that they had done to the Chinese and the French and the French again. And then us, yeah, like see everybody who's tried to control Afghanistan ever. Also by the same shit different terrain.

Yeah. So these versus a central, I mean, really, like, yeah. Yeah. So in where's an Asia? Yes. Which like, it's one of the three important rules. So Nixon tried to put a brave face on it with with the slogan of peace with honor. I remember yeah. Coming from a guy like tricky dick like get the word honor out of your fucking mouth. Yeah. Like you know asshole. No. But anyway, we bit at the time nobody

knew yet, you know, but peace with honor. Right. Honor how? Like, can you, can you quantify for me? What about this is honorable? Like, well, notice what's missing there now? Victory. Oh, yeah.

So, yeah. Yeah. Um, and, but it was, it was a huge embarrassment because we were the biggest superpower. And as much as we were we, you know, in the aggregate, you know, Zitgeist kind of sets, as much as we were, you know, staring across the, you know, bearing straight at the Russians in paranoia and fear, at the Russians in paranoia and fear. Nobody, I don't know if anybody ever really thought that we were the weak, like genuinely thought that we were the weaker of the two superpowers.

You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, it was like, well, they're approaching, they're getting really close to parity and we can't let that happen. I think this was always the like, well, you know, if they ever get to parody, we're fucked. Right.

But it was always the fear of them getting there. So we were the biggest superpower and we had to give away the store to a much, much smaller nation. Yeah. And like the collective emasculation involved in that. like the collective emasculation involved in that. Yeah. Is huge.

Like, I don't know how you could go about underselling that. Yeah, or over actually, you could easily undersell it. I don't think you could oversell it. Then, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then, and then, Saigon fell in April of 1975, right? So, so we pulled out of the country, we know we don't have any more troops there other than, you know, the Marines guarding the embassy. Right. But in 1975,

Saigon fell, which everybody knew was going to happen. It was, it was basically a foregone conclusion. But then images of panic civilians scrambling to board helicopters atop the US embassy. And then those choppers being pitched into the Gulf of Tonk and after offloading those refugees aboard US warships. Yeah, they had to push them over to make room for more because there was enough time to release. There was enough time you couldn't refute. Yeah. And there wasn't space on the decks. And like they just had to you, just you ease pitched into the ocean. Yeah. And that put the final symbolic nail into the coffin of the US's attempts to contain communist North Vietnam.

to contain communist North Vietnam. We're going on 50 years later and Americans of a certain generation are still better about how that war ended. Oh yeah, yeah. And they all ended up in the in the capital of of George W. Bush. Yeah. Yeah, you know, Rumsfeld, Cheney, all of those guys, that whole cadre. And there are, and what's interesting to me is, they actually shut up on my Facebook feed, either today or yesterday, memory from a few years ago, during the most recent, yesterday, memory from a few years ago during the most recent most most recent Republican administration. What did that way? Okay. Where the Trump administration had assassinated, let's use the proper word for it, a high ranking Iranian military official,

a military secret police official. And it was a moment during that administration of very, very, very high tensions and a lot of people, you and me, particularly being social studies teachers and small age historians, going like, this is how wars start here right like this is this is scary We really don't want to be doing this And there was analysis that I that I shared Uh, that was talking about there was a cadre of People in high ranking positions in the Pentagon and in the civilian portions of the defense apparatus in the Trump administration.

I'll just go ahead and name word Voldemort because why not? Yeah. You know, who were bitter about our losses in Iraq? Yeah. And the way that Iran and the way that Iran had fiddled with that. And one had revenge and their bitterness was driving the policies of the Trump administration. It's like, can we please stick a stick a stick a stick in the spokes of this

wheel? Or maybe just take the out this turning like for fuck sake the hell like just just it okay okay oh yeah you know yeah let's let's if you really want to try to claim that you're the party of real politics mm-hmm play real politics and go all right you know, we lost that one moving on. Right. Revenge is not a rational act. No, no it's not. What the fuck? Revenge is not the same as retribution either.

Like I could understand if somehow somebody came to our country and bombed us being like, okay, parking lot time. Like I don't agree with you. But I can understand that psychology. Revenge is short-sighted little man energy. Yeah. Like how you avoided the ableism with that, by the way. Yeah, yeah.

Well, and the body's shaming. Like, it's just, no, I'm not here for that. But yeah, it's very much like you, I think you use the word inadequate personalities. Yes. It's that, you know. Which is, I believe, a psychological term. Oh, okay. I picked that up from my father who wound up getting a degree in psychology because that

was the easiest degree for him to get when he rejoined the Navy at the anyway, a long story. But anyway, he he he studied it and he knows it. So yeah, there's all Balkans that jargon and I picked up from him. Okay, so just real quick, we the United States left Vietnam in 73. Yes. 60 day bug out um yeah when did that start what what month was that? This is easy for me to remember um because uh you were like five years old then? Fuck you. No, no, it was in March. Okay um because I can remember March 73 because my birthday was in March of 75. Okay, okay. So yeah, March April May. Yeah, May of 25.

If I'm remembering her, it might be conflating. Anyway, fall of sci-gon and perished anyway, but it's, I wanna say it's relatively early in the year. Okay, so okay, and then in 75, the Huey's are going in the ocean. Yeah. Just kind of an interesting thing. Bruno San Martino held the WWF title at the time Worldwide Wrestling

Federation title. Okay. Yeah. From 63 to 71. He loses it. Oh, cow. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, just, you know, New York is very much an ethnic town for wrestling. And he was the Italian guy. And they had different wrestlers, right? He lost it to Ivan Koloff who Russian communism. And they say that when he lost Madison Square Garden went silent. Oh, shit. Really?

Nothing. Yeah. Like Bruno, Bruno is big on tall tales when he was like, but in his history is fascinating. But he said that he thought he lost his hearing because it went so silent. I even call off one in January of 71. He drops the title just like 21 days later, like in February of 71 to Pedro Morales, a Puerto Rican.

Okay. Who held it until there's a cowboy who beat him, Stan Stazyak, who then lost it to Bruno in December of 73. Okay. I just think it's interesting that they, they're like, we need to get this belt back on Bruno. And some of the, I mean, it's, it's box office stuff. It's, it's absolutely like the pressures of the economy at the time. Yeah, inside baseball.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But I do find it interesting. They're like Bruno San Martino, who's this really fucking strong guy who would like do workouts publicly so that people would come to the show, was, you know, 500 pounds was like a normal thing that he would lift. I forget exactly how he'd lift it. I don't think he was benching 500 yet,

but he was squatting at what night. It is strong fucking guy. Yeah. They were like, we need to get it back on him. And and Pedro Morales had held it for like two years. Um, but by, by the end of 73, they're like, we need to get it back on Bruno because it's better for business, et cetera. And he holds it until 77. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Big strong man. Yeah. Exactly. You got that masculine. Now what's interesting is after 77 you have a flashier strong man you have a a man who Is very very he's he's a body. Um, his name is a superstar Billy Graham. Um, he specifically

Inspired Jesse the body venture and Okay, but he talked about his 23 inch pythons. Um, oh, yeah, Hulk Hogan had 24 inch pythons, you know, yeah. But, uh, and so you had, uh, superstar Billy Graham, who was this body builder type, um, as opposed to a strong man. So now he's more visibly strong. And he holds it for about a year, and then Bob backland takes it and Bob backland holds it for almost five years and Bob backland is Central casting called and said they needed a five foot nine pasty white guy and

He answered the call practically like if you look at pictures of Bob backland he is the all-American icon hero of wrestling. And he is insanely strong, has a a freakishly straight back. Um, but he does not look like superstar Billy Graham. He does not look like Bruno San Martino. What he was was he was a legitimately good wrestler. And so they needed a kind of, I don't know, beaver cleaver or Wally cleaver to hold the title for them into the 80s. Like that's what they transitioned to. Yeah, okay. See what you're saying. Yeah generic white male protagonist. Yes, he is he is what they call the white meat baby babyface Yeah, yeah, and then he of course loses it to the iron chic who who loses it a month in 1983 who then

loses it a month later in 1984 to Hulk Hogan, which is Americana. But it's just really interesting to me that you go from Bruno Samartino and he lost the belt because he needed a break. I think, yeah, he just neither needed a break or he broke his neck.

I forget which time. Because at one point he broke his neck. Yeah, but he was burning out. The shit that's just a toss off when you talk about what happens to this guy is like, yeah, holy crap. Yeah. Okay. Um, no, he is neck was broken a few years later. That's what it was. But anyway, so he needed a break because he'd been going for eight fucking years. And this is back when like you made six shows a week. Um, yeah. And he'd, he'd need a break. So he finally got the belt off of them two years after he said, I need a break. Um, and that went

to Ivan Kohlov who then yeah, picked it over to Pedro Morales, right? Yeah. But the fact that they returned to Bruno, yeah, and that, that strength and that masculinity. And then that gave way to a bodybuilding cheater and that gave way to white meat babyface. Yeah, just real interesting. And then it gives way to cartoonish literally cartoonish Hulk Hogan. Yeah. You know, just really interesting how those things kind of go through as well. So. Yeah. So, so we have the the loss of prestige associated with losing Vietnam. Right. We didn't lose. It was a tie. Right. That's what he said about Korea too.

Yeah, well, yeah. But fish called Wanda just jumped into my hand and I had a cavity client. So, um, the nose can. Yeah. So, stagflation at this point now led to higher unemployment. So, I had, I had mentioned earlier that the Vietnam War had led to higher taxation, which was one of the causes of inflation. Right. Well, it was worse than inflation. It was stagflation. And so this led to higher unemployment and the cost of living for most Americans increased dramatically. From 1969 to 1970, there was a spike in inflation that the Nixon administration devalued the dollar in order to, in order to curb that. It took it off the silver standard and put it on the promissory now. I believe.

Yes. Yeah, 73, 72, 73. Yeah. Yeah. Inflation roared back between 73 and 76. Mm-hmm. And then again, in 1979, 1980. Yep.

Now, huge big reason for that inflation. So now, if you're a SISHET white guy, now there's a significant percentile chance you've lost your job. If you have kept your job, you are working just as hard or harder and you're falling behind. Right.

And again, this is still where even though all of those inroads from Second Wave feminism have been going on, you're still living in this conception of your role in society as a man that you have to be the one to provide for your family. So you're having to work harder to do that. And a big part of the reason for this inflation was OPEX oil embargo in 1973, right, which was kicked off by the young Kippur War. So there was this war between Israel and everybody else. Basically, which, which the Israelis want. As you say, in fairness, everyone else attacked Israel, right?

Yeah. Okay. If you flip flop between everyone else and Israel, then it kind of makes it more clear who the aggressor is. Okay. Yeah. So everybody in the neighborhood went, all right, we're beating the fuck out of them. And they all attacked Israel.

And Israel went, uh, no, I don't think so. And, and like, managed to, I don't remember whether it was the Egyptian or the Jordanian Air Force. I think it was the Egyptian Air Force. They just bombed the Egyptian Air Force into the stone age. Like, no, you don't have airplanes anymore. We're knocking you into the 19th century. Right. In terms of aircraft, they don't exist. And so that led to the oil embargo, in part, because the leaders of the countries that had picked

a fight with Israel and gotten their noses very badly bloodied, turned around and told everybody, well, you know, this is because of CIA. Right. And the Americans were part of this. And this is one of those few occasions on which like the CIA, looking around and going, who me? It was actually telling the truth. Right.

Like, no, I didn't do that. But like, you know, boy who cried wolf, you know, kind of a problem. And so the OPEC nations said, all right, that's cool. We're just, we're not selling any fucking oil. And so this war that we weren't even involved in between countries that were objectively a whole lot less militarily powerful than we were led to long lines at the pump shortages, rising prices across the board.

And so this created this incredible way of frustration and helplessness. Right? Yeah. And about the most emasculating for anybody who subscribes to that, you know, transactional ideal of masculinity, helplessness is the worst emotion to deal with. Well, especially when when you have been the producer and your producer ability is measured in economic units, that suddenly the same amount of work doesn't get you the same value on those units. You can literally no longer take care of your family.

You're putting in the same effort sometimes more. And that's if you kept your job. And so now what does that say about what is due to you as well? Like I do want to come back to that entitlement, right? And so it's I did the thing I was told I was supposed to do. Yeah. How was that not getting me the same amount of things? Yeah. Why am I what the fuck? Right. And yeah, it's gonna feel like you're being ripped off. And on several levels, you are because the economy is getting out of whack and whatnot. Yeah. And the government is stepping in and doing meaningless shit. Like, I remember Nixon, the great Kenzian that he was,

he stepped in and he pegged to the price of, he put a price ceiling on hamburger. The problem was he put it at equilibrium. So it didn't fucking do anything. Yeah, it's like dammit. And so the things that the government was doing were cosmetic and useless. Yep. Um, in many, many ways. So as a result of that, in the 1974 midterms, um, Democrats gained 49 seats in the house. Jesus. and four in the Senate. The Democrat controlled Congress

then passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act in 1975, which established cafe standards for fuel efficiency and cars, which are a big symbol of, were then and remain your Americanness, your power and your virility and whatever all else you want to tie to it. Cars started getting smaller. Well, and those same cars that had been getting longer,

yeah, were think about who were the people buying those longer cars. Yeah. Those were the people who were teenagers in the hot rod days when cars were just becoming available to teenagers. They were the first generation of kids to be able to actually purchase vehicles and work on them themselves and have that tide of their masculinity too. And there's all kinds of movies that we're going around with that too. So yes, now cars had finally like, you know, their land yachts, I think they're

recalled. Yeah. And now they're starting to shrink. Shrink. Yeah. Yeah. And another disruption in oil production followed the Iranian Revolution in 1979, creating another inflation spike. And the Iranian Revolution led to the hostage crisis, which placed the United States government in the position of having to negotiate with a much smaller nation for the freedom of its citizens. Yeah. So in 1979, if you were a Cessette White American male, you had seen your job become less stable or go away entirely. So you're buying power shrink and seeing your position in the world diminish as smaller, objectively weaker countries humbled yours. Now, you said that happened in 79. Yes. Guess who came into the world wrestling federation in 1979 and won a battle royal his first night in at Madison Square

Garden. Roddy Piper. No. Hulk O'Han. Iron Sheik. Oh, shit. Really? That is too perfect.

So he gets a title shot that night and loses to Bob Backland. White meat maybe face. Right. Right. Right. And we have to reassure the audience that social order is still intact. night and loses to Bob backland white meat maybe face right right right in the picture of the audience the night social order is still intact right and then he fucked up for a little while and then he comes back um and and he's a bad guy fucking everywhere now right oh yeah um

well the irony is he had actually come from Iran he is Iranian. His name is a Cosgro, a Cosgro of a Ziri. And he came from Iran and he actually helped the American wrestling team in the Olympics. Because Iran has huge, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, because so this guy was shooter that. Yeah, he was. He was okay. He was a legit. And so he went all over the place after after that short 1979 for Vince McMahon senior time. And then he doesn't come back until 1983. And that's when he wins he actually Okay challenges, but he's doing the America Ha, but we that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, so anyway, okay, yeah

Wow You know really This is another another one of the rules of of of what we're doing needs to be Wherever the zitgeist is going wrestling is going to be an indicator. Mostly a leading one, sometimes a tailing one, but always an indicator. Oh yeah, like one of my favorite ones, there was a tag team. Right as we were getting ready to go into Iraq in 2003. Yeah.

Um, do you remember how uh, France was like, um, hang on, wait a minute. We questioned the intelligence reports. Yeah. Right. You're basing this off of this and like they traced it to like, oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, their analysis, their analysis was not bullshit. Like, they were correct. They were right. Yeah, there was a tag team that came into the WWE right a few months after that called La Résistance. There's two French guys. There's two French guys. Yeah, straight up. Wow.

And then there was a team called the UnAmericans for a little while. And they're all like Canadians. Sparkly murder, gymnastics. Oh, I love it. I love it. Yeah. So, all right. So we lost in Vietnam.

Yep. And now we have a president who has been attacked by a rabbit. Or fucking Jimmy Carter. And by the way, like the whole idea of being a guy who wants peace is somehow like, again, you go back to the norm. It has become a, a, a, an, an albatross around the neck. You are not masculine. If you want peace and it's like, wait a minute. Fucking John Adams, like, yeah. Woodrow Wilson bragged about it before tossing us in there. But like, yeah, peace was like a goal.

Like it was the thing you're supposed to say. And yes, all of a sudden, it wasn't that. And then it was, and then it was peace with honor. Like it has to be qualified. Yeah. Yep. So, okay. So, um, Carter had won the president's in 76 as a reaction to Watergate. Yes. But not in a landslide. True. Okay. Democrats held on to their majorities in both houses of Congress, but then the Iranian Revolution happened on their collective watch. Yeah. Carter got attacked by a rabbit, was portrayed as weakened in effectual, and he was working

really hard to cool down the tensions between the US and the USSR. And conservatives were panicking about this because it was a decline of American strength. Right. The economy stayed stagnant. And in 1979, Carter got on TV and spoke to the American people and described a crisis of confidence in what has gone on to be called the malaise speech. Which he never had actually said out loud. He never mentioned the words general malaise in that order or in that speech at all. Yeah, no, it comes out like a few months later at a different place.

Yeah. And, and, but he did straight up, tell the American people we're suffering from a crisis of confidence, yep, which like we were. Right. Like, it's, it's, let's look in the mirror and be honest. Yeah. But the fact that he admitted it, uh-huh. Made room politically for the former California governor and Republican talking head, Ronnie

Reagan, I'm sorry, Ronald Reagan, who just brushed all, brushed aside all that negative Nancy talk and told the American people that it was morning in America. Right. And he said, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to stimulate the economy with, I'm going to, I'm going to do this thing called supply side economics. Right. Wouldn't want to go into that.

It's, if you want to cast that in the masculinity thing, I'm going to stimulate the economy by supercharging the supply side, the thrusting, driving part of the economy. Like, I'm going to do that. On top of that, by the way, Ronald Reagan was famous for playing cowboys. So you've got that masculine image

as well. And if I recall correctly, and I might be wrong, you'll have to correct me on this. Um, but, uh, essentially Jimmy Carter, he said the state of our nation is weak. He said that in his state of the nation is a state of the union, the state of our union is weak or it's sick or something. He said something that was not. It's strong, which every president since him has said that it is strong, sometimes a qualify it, but yeah, no matter what. And it's it's it's I swear to God, it sounds like they're talking as the the board. And I can't believe I'm doing this girlfriend of like, no, you're the biggest I've ever had. The state of our nation is so huge.

Well, okay. You know what? You know what strikes me about it. There has only ever been one King John of England. True. Because he did. Now, in that case, there's ineptness involved rather than just honesty. But you know, John, John was so bad at king that every generation of the royal family since him has been like, what are we going to name this kid? Not John. Not John. True. Like no.

Very true. You know, it's the same, it's the same energy. It's like, no, no, I'm, I'm not going to make that mistake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The thing telling the people the truth. Yeah. Just of just reflecting quite honestly. Yeah. Yeah. We'll just just look at the things. Don't be like, yeah, let's, let's be honest about what we're seeing. Yeah, how about that? Then don't get dressed in front of a mirror. Yeah, men get trust, they get dressed in the car, the giant car on the way to the job. Big car. Yeah, the, yeah. Like the only hope for women at that time, like back when it was 50% was that like men are still dying in their 50s. Like that seems to be like the only liberation.

Yeah. And the late 40s, early 50s. Yeah. Pretty much. You're not wrong. Damn. Yeah. So, he's going to stimulate the economy. So hard. So he's's gonna cut federal spending in taxes so hard so hard that it can't can't even scratch it that's hard nice he's gonna rebuild the military because that's that's america's dick right he's gonna erect it yeah

nice and he and he are you importantly that the government was the problem not the solution right they he talked way tough geopolitically. And as you said, he had played cowboys. Yes. And that was the image he cultivated, like actively cultivated. He's why we have

presidents like doing their thing on the western side of the White House now, right? Like they get inaugurated because he was facing west so that he nod toward California. Yep. And his slogan was, let's make America great again. Long before it got adopted by Trump, right? Yes, because long sentences are tough when you have whatever form of dementia it is. It suffers from. I also think that there's a grammatical thing going on. I think I've talked about this before.

Let's make America great again is what we call the Hortatory Subjunctive. You are including myself in it. You are including you and me in it. That's right. Let's do the dishes compared to do the dishes, which is imperative. That's a good point. Yes. Let's do it is parental and patronizing. Do it is what sort of authoritarian authoritarian and what's the word?

I'm looking for punet not not plaintative, but petulant. That's that. Okay. Yeah. Do it. Do it. You know, yeah. Yeah. Shemar Shemar.

Maybe. Barack, Barack, do it do it do it. You know, yeah, yeah, right? Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, um So uh, so the Republican Party in the same year dropped support for ERA from its platform Now Reagan promised that you know, I'm going to appoint the first female Supreme Court justice. I'm going to work with states to enact anti-discrimination laws, but ERA got dropped. Right. And now in the general election, Republicans took control of the Senate, gain seats in the House. Right. And Reagan won an electoral landslide. Yes, he did. Although the popular vote was a lot closer.

Yeah. He took 50.8% to Carter's 41% and John Anderson took 6.6% of the popular vote. Now Anderson had been a Republican, but he was so he basically said that Reagan's economic policies were bullshit. And, you know, it was bad ideas. No, we don't want to do this. And so he ran independently. He had the courage to do what Bush should have done. Should have done it. Yeah. And this image of cheerful tough guy worked for Reagan and the same insecurity. Two things about about that about that election too. Um, the ERA, one of the number one opponents to the ERA in the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly. And she was one of the people who fought really hard to, I don't know, she was actually a delegate or an elector for the Republican National Convention, but

she was a really key person in the Republican National Convention in 1976 and in 1980, if I recall correctly. She's one of the main opponents of the ERA to the point where she's like, we don't need that. No, I would be much more comfortable if we didn't have that. Blah blah blah. Oh, yeah. I mean, all of the bootlishing, you know, and one of one of the other things that

really catapulted Reagan, because you remember he's he's fighting in the primary against a bush, who is, as you said, an apparatus chick. Is that the word? Yes. Yeah. And and he's coming in and he had he had primary forward in 76. Remember. Yeah. As well. And Bush is much more the party guy, right? You've got a plank. I'll uphold that plank. Yeah Reagan is the personality guy and

Schlafly and God fall well get behind him Because they activate that religious right they actually get it. And so now it's power as its own end. It's just, and yeah, Brent and a Hill had gone into this. That's right. That's right. When we talked with her about, you know, co-opting a religious right.

Yeah, they were, yeah, they, they, oh, that's right. Yeah. And, so you've got that going on. And at the same time, in one of the debates, they, Reagan was running over his time. And they said, shut off his mic or something. And he got red faced, angry like a, like furious, like a Michigan mother,

pinched mouth and he said, I am paying for this microphone to tremendous applause. And it was, I think that was the moment that galvanized him because he was aggrieved and angry. He finally showed anger, not just charm, but anger. Yeah. And that anger, absolutely is one of those things that is also masculine.

Well, yeah, it's, it's, when you're, when you're dealing with the transactional model of masculinity, it's the only emotion you're allowed to show. Oh, good point. You can't be happy. That's true because happiness is frivolous. And he also can't be. Oh, going. You can't be sad, right? Because that implies you've lost something. You can't be scared because that's weak and vulnerable. You might get away with disgust. Yeah, as long as we can be disgusting.

Yeah, yeah. But anger and disgust are about the only two emotions you're allowed to show. And anger not even emotion. It's a secondary emotion. Yeah, it's a reaction to an emotion. And you can, you can laugh, but only under controlled circumstances. And only when you have gotten one over on somebody or you are somehow participating in over on somebody or you are somehow participating in, you know, some level of hierarchical banter, right? Whether you're laughing at the joke of somebody who's above you or you are laughing

at your own joke. Right. You know, but you're not allowed, but you're not allowed to be like joyful. Right. You're not allowed to show contentment. Yeah. And it also, it also occurs to me that he had a, because, you know, we live here in Northern California, in the Sacramento train museum, there is the train car that Ronald Reagan used as, I want to say, governor, but also, I think he might have pulled it out as well for running for president. But there's just something inherently masculine about the train. I mean, yes, obviously, there's the going into the tunnel shit. But I really am talking about, but I'm really talking about the talk about host scale. Yeah. But got you drinking.

Don't, don't do dude. Um, don't, don't do dude. Permanent and it has alcohol in it. If this comes out my nose, she made a grimpsies. It'll be cool. Oh, it's so fun. But, but just the, the, the ironness to it, the, the, the power to a locomotive and the weight, the expectation that it will go to the place it's supposed to. And it was built over the lives of plenty of indigenous people. So, yeah, that's so many metaphors. So many, it's it's an

onion of toxicity. I'm so glad I sense more into zoology now. It is. How can I hate trains? more into zoology nowadays. How can I hate trains? So Reagan becomes president, like you said, does not win a landslide, but he does win a electorally one hell of a landslide. Yeah, by a huge, huge margin like twerly. And so at the same time, at the same time, the insecurity, the same masculine insecurity that made his message attractive enabled the production of a glut of macho fantasy flicks.

Yeah. So at the end of Reagan's term in 84, we have Conan the Destroyer, which again shows Arnold Schwarzenegger with an out of shirt, but is notably less overtly sexualized. That's true. Yeah. The warrior and the sorceress in which David Caradine plays a swordsman in a highly sexualized reimagining of Kurosawa's eujimbo. Wait a minute. And in Conan the barbarian, Conan, or I'm sorry, Conan the destroyer, destroyer, Grace Jones is in that. And so is Wilts Chamberlain. Yep. Actually, so is Arnold Swart, or so is under the giant. But we see, we don't see him make up. So no, but but visibly, Grace Jones speaking back to the masculinity and the

androgyny, and Wil Chamberlain, who's known for being one of the greatest basketball players all time known for being insanely strong and athletic, and also for having had sex with 20,000 women. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, but it's, but it's subtext there as opposed to text. If that makes sense, like you're, you're looking at the actors and actresses on the screen, and you know that about them, or you've heard that about them, but it's not part of the plot. Right. Okay. And then the never ending story is in 1984, which takes us back out of the sword and sorcery genre entirely with a young boy as the protagonist in a remarkably meta fairy tale.

Yes. Then, in 1985, the beginning of the second Reagan term, we have legend with Tom Cruise playing a Luke Skywalker kind of hero figure who has to rescue. I was just going to say Reagan gets shot in 83 or 82. 82. And has the honey I forgot to duck line that he gives, which is from a boxing movie the honey I forgot to duck line that he gives, which is from a boxing movie about Jack Dempsey, I think, and he shows good humor and recovery. And it adds to we can now be sympathetic and it allows him to get out from under a little bit of the masculine angryness because he was really unpopular after he fucked up the strike by firing everybody. Like his shit wasn't working and he might have been facing something

different. But then he gets shot and lives just like iron pants across the pond. And it increases his popularity as a result. And now you've got another layer to that masculinity. So I'm sorry, legend Luke Skywalker. Yeah. So Tom Cruise plays this Luke Skywalker style hero figure who has to rescue the last unicorn and a princess played by Mia Sarah from the clutches of a very heavily made up Tim Curry, who in this film, Tim Curry is the

one with the bear chest and the oiled pecks, who's made up as the devil. I mean, the darkness. And this isn't really sword and sorcery, but it's definitely a traditional male hero. He's also very good. He's no more. A little bit. Yeah. Oh, oh, very queer coated. Yeah,

he is. Yeah, big curry. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Um, but anyway, but it's definitely a traditional male hero, saving princess. It's that same narrative. Oh, yeah. But the hypermuchismo is no longer there with the main character. Right. Lady Hawk, starring Rutger Hauer, who was 47, 41 at the time, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who was 27 at the time, as a knight and a noble woman who are struck by the curse of a jealous bishop. Matthew Broderick plays the thief who gets emotionally invested in helping the break the curse.

In the end, the curse is broken and the knight kills the evil bishop. We've moved out of sword and sorcery still, and yet we still have a very traditional gender role paradigm at work. And Chey. Yes. Nice. As I was reading, like I wrote that line without thinking about that, but as I read it, I was like, well shit. So then we had, so then 1986 is where

the spike really drops away. Yeah, Highlander is a classic and very much trope following kind of story. Yeah, yeah, but labyrinth Which is the same year has a teenage female protagonist You're talking only about fantasy movies aren't you? Yes, yes, okay? Because I was like dude fucking top gun. Yeah, no, but okay Fantasy movies. I'm with you. Oh, okay, okay, okay? Okay, okay, fantasy movies. I'm with you. Specifically fantasy genre. Okay, okay. Because, you know, Top Gun is the whole other basically that's where that shit retreats to is hyper militarized movies. Because I'm old and okay, sorry, I'm stepping on your toes.

That's that's a whole other episode. Yeah, we can talk about the shift from fantasy into modern action films. Oh, please, let's. Yeah, yeah, but butlander, again, classic follows all the tropes, kind of story. Labyrinth has a teenage female protagonist. And notably, David Bowie and his very tight pants in a bisexual panic inducing performance

Yep. With according to Warwick Davis, seven socks down the front of his leggings. Warwick Davis was even in that movie. Yeah, but shit dude. Warwick Davis has been in fucking everything. What was it? Who did he play in that movie?

I don't remember which character. But you know, no, no. I got to look it up. But yeah, no, he, he was in it. All right. I know that he stuffed a shit ton of popery down his crotch because the guy who is doing the static juggling with the acrylic balls, which if you talk to pen and teller, pen will say that he, his roommate at the time came up with that. But that guy had to stay down so that his arms would be at David Bowie's arms level. And so we had to do it over and over because

you're doing it site unseen like that juggling. And so that meant that he was right there at crotch level for David Bowie. And David Bowie's like, I'm sweating buckets in this fucking get up. And so he put a bunch of popery down his crotch. I know that happened. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

That's interesting. Yeah. So hold on. I'm looking this up. Oh. So, okay. So you've got the labyrinth, which yeah, you have a female lead and there is no hypermasculine anything in that movie

that I can think of. In fact, the only one that is that you've got it kind of split into a fractal thing. You've got a serbidimus who is the daring dude and I got to go forward. He's the tangiest fucking character besides the worm. And he's thoroughly inept and in in in in consequential in a lot of ways. Then you've got Ludo who is the big hulking brute who is the gentleist giant. Yeah. And so yeah, I mean, you don't have masculinity in that movie. Yeah. And you've got Jareth who who is very sexual, like you said. But none of them is a complete man package as it were. Speaking of. Yeah, speaking of packages. So, Warwick Davis was credited as part of the Goblin Corps. Oh, okay, okay. So it was before he got really big. So he was, you know, well, it was anyway. He'd already paid, played Wicked.

Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, but he was still doing his work in show. Sure. Heavy makeup as opposed to being on screen as, you know, or like Davis. So yeah.

So that's kind of where my thesis here ends. Okay. Is by 86, we're into the second term of Reagan. And there are other things going on and there are other outlets for this expression of masculinity, there has been a level of economic turnaround and like my own memory from my childhood at the age of 11 is there was not any invasive feeling of me being threatened as a cis-hat white boy child. You know what I mean? Sure, sure. And so that panic had that particular type of panic had somewhat subsided.

And so that particular avenue of expression was no longer needed or was no longer selling tickets. Put it that way. Okay. Yeah. So what based on that. Yeah. Let's retake away. I'm really interested in a podcast now where we just look at Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, like how he takes the hypermasculinity through fantasy

and then into modern day militarism because he stops after, he stops being shirtless in fantasy movies after Conan the Destroyer and he stops fantasy movies after Red Sonia, yeah, which is I think 85. And- When's Predator? Predator is modern day thing though, I'm not saying he stops being. Well, yeah, no, no, I understand, but you're you're you're thinking about shirtlessness. Yeah, twigged somehow. Because there's a climax of Predator. Yeah, there's also raw deal. Um, there is a red heat. There is a commando. Yep.

Um, there's predator. There's total recall. Um, all of those are, he's still showing off his muscles to some extent or another. But in total recall, I don't think he spends hardly any time totally shirtless. No, he doesn't. Um, there's, I think, maybe think maybe one scene, other times it's ripped. It's much more about the gun stuff by that point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, but there he does still have feats of strength that happened in there, although there are feats that

anybody could have done for the most part, although no, he rips his arm out of the thing. Um, but, uh, but yes, by that point, it's kind of slowing down. But still, you had red heat, commando predator and raw deal. What year is Rambo 2? Rambo 2 is 85. Okay. I wanna say, I could be, I can't buy you.

Because I think that's the leading edge of that same. Yes. Yeah. Because that's that's America needs. I'm pretty sure it is 85 because that's America needing to recast. Uh, loss of Vietnam. Yeah. So that would make sense that would be 10 years later.

Uh, instead of it being first blood where, uh, hey, here's what happens when small town cops are really shitty to veterans. Instead, you know, and it just gets worse and worse and then it ends up crying. Yeah. Yeah, it turns into something very, very different. But yeah, I think I would love to see an exploration from Hercules in New York all the way through. from Hercules in New York all the way through. I don't know if what I want to subject myself to Hercules. I've not you. I watched all of the you can do something for the team here. All right. Fine. All right. All right.

If I can find it anywhere, I will find sure it's on YouTube. Just to do the okay. Okay. All right. But Hercules in here, you, you, you could just glance at that. But honestly, Conan barbarian and destroyer and his supporting role in red sonia. Yeah. Um, as Callador, if I recall, yeah. Um, and he's not shirtless through much of that. Like, he's hard. I don't think he gets shirtless in that one at all. Yeah. He's just wearing a jerkin. Yeah. So, he's a jerkin. Anyway, it's on a different table. But anyway, I'm fascinated by that.

I think that you've pulled a Damian. You've spent two episodes to get us up to, I think, what is the meat of your thesis? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. Thank you. And so I'm very excited to see the next iteration of this and see if it's a three or a four-parter. But I do think it's interesting that as we're talking the fantasy genre, it is in many ways it is a short, short span of time where masculine fantasy genre occurs.

I mean, it's, you know, I'll take it back to wrestling. Stone Cold Steve Austin is famous. But if you look at the time where he was truly on top, it was around three to two years span. Wow. That was it. But he was white hot. And same thing for this fantasy genre masculinity, just it's really what, like four years.

Yeah, basically four years. Yeah, four or five years. That's wild, considering how much space it takes up in our brains. Yeah, so yeah, I'm curious to see where this goes. I'm looking at see where this goes. I'm looking. Yeah. So there we go. What have you been reading lately? I have been reading the new warriors omnibus that my brother bought me a while back. Okay. And it's really neat. So

very close you who listen to the speedball episode. There's a lot of him in this and it's really interesting to see what I didn't include in the episode. So that's kind of fun. But what I'm going to recommend to people is actually a book by, oh god, what's his name? James Stout, and it's called the Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics playing as if the world is watching and it's or was watching and it's it's it's largely about It's it's essentially it's the popular front Olympics as opposed to the Munich Olympics that Hitler did. It's coming out party. And it's also talking about the Spanish Civil War, of course, which Spanish Civil War started the same day that popular front Olympics were supposed to start,

which is wild. And it's kind of talking about a big event planning, but it's also talking about very leftist politics and excellence in athletics and things like that. So it tickles that a lot of things. So, and if that doesn't tickle your fancy, then the art of war, the graphic novel. Oh, there's a graphic novel for it. Okay.

Somebody has taken to making a lot of classic books, graphic novels, and I am here for it. So the art of war graphic novel is also what I will recommend. So how about you? Well, very recently, you gave me a book. Thank you, by the way, for it, gave me a book. Thank you. By the way, for it, knowing that I am a sword nerd, you gave me a book, The Marshall Arts of Japan, which is an English translation of, I don't know if you took a close look at the interior of this book. But what was fascinating to me, the moment I opened it, the text that is being translated was written during the Meiji period. And it opens, speaking of concerns about masculinity, it opens with a forward in which the original author laments the state of the current generation of Japanese men and the decline of the samurai spirit. And I read that and went, well, okay, I'm definitely going

to have to sit down and read the rest of this shit because I'll leave now. Yeah. definitely gonna have to sit down and read the rest of this shit because I'll leave out. Yeah. Um, because it really is a remarkable artifact of that time period. So it's very niche. I don't know if I would, you know, recommend it to very many people in our audience because it's very much an ed thing. Yeah. But I'm, I'm, I'm having a great deal of fun with it. So thank you very much for that. It was awesome. I'm really glad. So yeah, it's hinge points in history plus the,

I love hinge points, you know, like where things are shifting. And I also love, I also know that you love the history of samurai. You like the history of Japan. So it just, it all kind of lined up. Yeah, it it gelled in a very, very big way. So yeah, yes. Well, cool. Where could people find you if they want to if you want to be found? I can be found at Mr. underscore Blalock on TikTok. I can be found at catfetcher75 on Twitter. We collectively can be found on the website,

www.geekhistorytime.com, and on Twitter, while it still circles the widening gyre, we can be found at Geek History time there. And obviously if you are listening to us, you have found our podcast on some place, whether on our website or through one of the subscription services that we are part of. So wherever it is that you have found us, please take a moment to subscribe. Please take a moment to give us the five star review that you know we deserve. And that's pretty much what I have to say. How about you? Where can you be found? Honestly, let's see. This will have probably aired after our big show at Henry's in Sacramento.

So I'm going to direct people to go to Luna's on March 3rd in Sacramento for a capital punishment. It's going to be a banger of a show. There's a lot of really good contestants on that one 8 p.m. As it stands, we are, we need proof of vaccination and $10. I say bring 20 because that way you can buy some merch. You can get some nachos. It's good times. We asked the people bring masks, but if not, we will, we have started providing them to people

if they want to use them. So we're trying to keep folks a bit safer. And if you don't want to come March 3rd to Luna's, you can come April 7th to Henry's again. And it's going to be one hell of a show there. Same, same basic parameters. So come to one of those. That's, that's mostly where you're going to find me right now. So. All right. Cool. Well, for a geek history of time, I am a manly Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock.

And until next time, I will have my own kingdom, my own queen.